While there have been many well-documented supernatural occurrences in the Weatherford, the consensus is that whatever entities inhabit the hotel are largely benign. Yes, we’ve had plenty of guests check in only to leave minutes or hours later after getting scared, but no one has been injured or psychologically damaged by any ghosts, as far as anyone has ever reported back to us. While Zak Bagans and the Ghost Adventures crew reached some interesting conclusions on their episode about the hotel, those of us who have a history with the building can assure you that the “hauntings” are intriguing but nothing to be particularly frightened of.
To understand why there’s no simple answer to the question of “which rooms are haunted?,” you need a little backstory about the building. While the exterior of the hotel looks much like it did on opening day in 1900, the interior is another story. If you’ve ever wondered why the numbers of our seventeen guestrooms seem so random (room 25 is on the main floor and rooms numbered in the 40s and 50s are on the third), it’s a relic of the time when the hotel had over fifty rooms, many about the size of a closet and tucked into every corner of the building in spaces that are now occupied by bars and offices. Because of constantly changing room sizes and room numbers prior to 1975, there is little information about where many of the historical stories had taken place, so we’re largely going on information gained from recent experience.
One exception is that a large portion of the Zane Grey Ballroom was our original bridal suite, and early VIPs like Zane Grey, William Randolph Hearst, and Thomas Moran stayed there. While we can only speculate on the causes of the phenomena, many guests are surprised to find orbs and occasional apparitions in photos they take in the area. There is famous story of a ghostly bride and groom who are seen in the hotel, and they seem to straddle the ballroom area as well as room 54. While 54 and the rooms surrounding it now make up our laundry room and is therefore off-limits outside of official tours, the Zane Grey Ballroom is open to the public on a regular basis and is also the site of numerous wedding receptions, company parties, and celebrations of life.
Of our existing rooms that are currently available to rent, the ones with the most activity run the gamut from arguably our nicest room (42, a king suite) to our most basic room (59, very cozy and with a shared bathroom). While it’s tempting to recount the paranormal histories of these rooms, we’d rather guests check them out with an open mind and report back to us if they experience anything.
What do you think? Do you have what it takes to spend the night in room 42 or 59? If you do and you experience anything, we’d love to hear all about it! Also, the Gopher Hole Pub in our basement is open to the public almost daily, and that area is site of probably more claims than all other parts of the hotel put together!